Verbascum (verbaskum)

[NL. (Tournefort, 1700; earlier in Brunfels, 1530), tribe by its five perfect stamens. About 140 species have been described, many of them hybrids or varieties: only 100, or a few more, are now admitted. They are natives of Europe, North Africa, and western and central Asia. They are herbs, usually biennial, more or le clad in floc wool, commonly and erect, rarely low and branching or spiny. The soft alternate leaves vary from entire to pinnatifid. The flowers are yellow, purplish, red, or rarely white, solitary or clustered in the axils of bracts, and disposed in terminal spikes or racemes, le often in panicles. The fruit is a two-valved capsule, globular, egg shaped, or flattened. The stem-leaves are se ile and often decurrent, the radical leaves (frequently very large), coarse and conspicuous. The leaves of V. Thapsus, the common mullen, and somewhat bitter, are used 6726 and slender, sometimes corymbed or panicled. About 14 species are natives of the United States, mostly weedy and small-flowered; 5 of these occur within the northeastern States, of which the principal are V. hastata, the blue, and V. urticæfolia, the white vervain, tall plants with long panicled or clustered spikes. For V. of ficin a lis, the chief introduced species, see vervain, herb of the cro (under herb ), pigeon's-gra , simpler's joy, and cut under laciniate. Four southwestern species produce large showy pink or purplish flower-clusters, which elongate into spikes in fruit; among these V. bipinnatifida (V. montana) and V. Aubletia are sometimes cultivated. The latter is a creeping and spreading perennial with incised leaves, parent of many garden hy brids; it occurs in open places from Florida to IIlinois, Arkansas, and Mexico, in nature with rose colored, purple, or lilac flowers. The numerous Verbena Aubletia. cultivated verbenas, very popular in the United States from their brilliant and continuous bloom and from their growth in ma es, are largely de- rived from the South American species V. chamædrifolia , V. phlogifolia , V. teu- crioides, and V. crinoides , in nature respectively scarlet, rose-colored, white, and lilac-purple. In cultivation they include all colors except yellow and pure blue; many are striped; and the best have a distinct eye, or bright central spot. Several species are also very fragrant, especially V. teucrioides. V. venosa is more often cultivated in England. 2. [1. c.] A plant of this genus. -Lemon-scented verbena. Same as lemon - verbena . Verbenaceæ (ver-be-nā sē-ē), n . pl . [NL. (Jus- sieu, 1806), Bicarpellatæ and cohort Lamiales . It is characterized by an infe- rior radicle, usually opposite leaves, and irregular bisexu- al flowers, and is particularly distinguished from the near- ly related order Labiatæ by an entire ovary and a fruit with either two or four nutlets. It includes about 740 species, belonging to 65 genera, cla ed in 8 tribes, of which the are Stilbe, Cloanthes, Verbena , Vitex , as emollient applications to tumors, and are the source of ryopteris, Symphorema, and Avicennia. They are either several popular remedies. (See mullen, with cut.) Four species are naturalized in the United States; 6 are natives of Great Britain, and about 50 others of continental Europe. V. Lychnitis and V. pulverulentum, the white mullens of England and other parts of Europe, produce stiff branching panicles of yellow flowers with white bearded filaments; are covered with a white powdery down which readily rubs off. About a dozen yellow flowered species are thought worthy of cultivation for ornament, among which V. Chaixi is remarkable for its tall stem, 10 feet high, with large green leaves, and enormous branching panicles of yellow flowers with purplish filaments. V. phœniceum, from southern Europe, is peculiar in its large spike of showy violet flowers. verbatim (ver-bā'tim), adv. [ Antonius, in a letter which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics, called him [Decimus Brutus] "venefic a," witch as if he had enchanted Cæsar. Bacon, Friendship (ed. 1887). And this I have set downe almost verbatim from the re port of the aforesaid Ambrose Earle of Warwicke that now is, who was present at that action, and had his horse also wounded under him with two or three arrowes. Sir J. Smyth , in Ellis's Lit. Letters, p. 56. 2t. By word of mouth; orally; verbally. Think not, although in writing I preferr'd The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes, That therefore I have forged, or am not able Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen. Shak., 1 Hen. VI., iii. 1. 13. herbs, shrubs, or trees. Their leaves are usually opposite or whorled, entire, toothed, or incised, and without stipules. The inflorescence is a spike, raceme, panicle, or cyme, either simple or compound. The corolla is usually small, commonly with a distinct tube which is often in curved, five or frequently four imbricate flat-spreading lobes, and four didynamous stamens; some genera produce only two stamens or a two-lipped corolla with one or more lobes enlarged or erect. The ovary contains at first one, soon two, and at length commonly four cells, each cell usually with one ovule; in fruit it becomes more or le drupaceous, with a juicy, fleshy, or dry exocarp, and an indurated endocarp, which is indehiscent, or breaks into two or four nutlets, or rarely more. They are rare in the north temperate zone, common in the tropics and in temperate parts of South America. They are herbaceous in colder regions, becoming shrubby in the tropics, or even very large trees, as the teak. The fruit is sometimes edible, as in species of Lantana and Premna, but is more often acrid. Their properties are sometimes aromatic. Many are of medicinal repute, as species of Call i carp a, Congea, and Clerodendron. (Compare Stachytarpheta and Vitex.) Many genera are cultivated for ornament, as Ver ben a, Lantana, and Clerodendron, or for the colored fruit, as Call i carp a. Only 4 genera are native within the United States - Lippia, Call i carp a, Phryma, and Verbena. verbenaceous (ver-bē-nā'shius), a. Pertaining to or having the characters of the Verbenaceæ. verbena-oil (ver-bē'nä-oil), n. Same as Indian meli a - oil (which see, under meli a - oil ): verbena tet (ver'bē-nāt), v. t.; pret. and pp. verbena ted, ppr. verbena ting. [